Читать книгу 1 Corinthians - Luise Schottroff - Страница 26

In 1:18 Paul must do battle with people within the congregation in Corinth who consider it to be mōria/foolishness, idiocy, imprudence to be in solidarity with Jesus’ crucifixion and, thereby, also with crucifixions. The pressure was so great that again and again people denied that they belonged to Jesus (aparneō or arneō, for example Matt 26:34, 70). Another Greek word for this is skandalidzō/to take offense. In the figure of Peter, the Synoptic Gospels have established an empathic monument to this shocking danger of solidarity with Jesus and with one another. Peter had betrayed Jesus, though he had not wanted to do so. His fear was too great (Mark 14:66–72 and parallels). This account was written and handed on long after Jesus’ death, not because Peter should be remembered as a weak character, but because it evokes courage that he succumbed to his fear and then, in spite of that, stood up again and was found to be at the side of the Risen One. The danger posed by political pressure plays a significant role in the gospels; see the flight of all the disciples after Jesus’ arrest (Mark 14:50) or also Mark 4:17; Mark 8:34–38 and parallels. These traditions are not recounted with the conviction, »This can’t happen to us.« Those involved knew that the fear of brutal executions and persecution was not some remote possibility. When Paul did battle with people in the Corinthian congregation who found it foolish or imprudent to hold up the Risen One for all to see as the one who had been crucified, he didn’t have in mind »opponents« or heretics who believed something different from what he believed, but instead people who asked whether fellowship with the Messiah was possible without political peril.

From testimonies about persecutions of Christian congregations we learn that believers during their trials or even earlier renounced the faith and then even betrayed their brothers and sisters.⁷² In addition to these testimonies from 64 and about 110 CE, there are discussions from within the congregations arising in the second century. Here one also finds the argument that taking upon oneself the peril of being associated with the Crucified One is »madness.« Thus, Tertullian reports that there were »opponents of martyrdom« who argue that it is »pointless« to sacrifice one’s own life by publicly testifying adherence to the crucified Messiah Jesus. »But the unsophisticated souls know not what is written, and what meaning it bears, where and when and before whom we must confess, or ought, save that this, to die for God, is, since He preserves me, not even artlessness, but folly, nay madness.«⁷³ The »foolishness« of speaking about the crucifixion in Corinth becomes understandable from this text, even if it comes from the period around 200 CE, »in every case, the attitude toward martyrdom corresponds to the interpretation of Christ’s suffering and death.«⁷⁴

If it has become so obvious why people betrayed Christ, it needs to be asked why others did not do that, why they resisted the pressure. What did they gain by belonging to the Messiah? The messianic community had together summoned the strength to forge a way of life that stood in opposition to the one society offered. In this way the »wisdom of the world« and the might of the of this world’s powers were overcome. The Christian Justin Martyr wrote with reference to his community (before 165 CE):

and we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons,—our swords into plowshares …—and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy … For it is plain that, though beheaded and crucified, … we do not give up our confession.⁷⁵

A legend about the venerable Polycarp (executed on February 22, 156 CE) reports that after his arrest he was brought to an arena in which wild beasts had already been assembled to tear people limb from limb. In this situation he was urged to save his skin: »Swear by the fortune of Caesar; repent, and say, Away with the Atheists.«⁷⁶ The »Atheists« is a reference to the enemies of Rome who because of their rejection of the official Roman religion were branded as godless atheists. »But Polycarp, gazing with a stern countenance on all the multitude of the wicked heathen then in the stadium, and waving his hand towards them, while with groans he looked up to heaven, said, ›Away with the Atheists.‹ Then, the proconsul [urged] him … saying, ›Swear, and I will set thee at liberty, reproach Christ.‹«

As we can see, the proconsul was not taken in by Polycarp’s cunning. Polycarp could in all honesty label as atheists the people in the arena waiting for the murders. Nevertheless, the proconsul demanded that Polycarp curse Christ, distance himself from Rome’s enemies (the atheists) and acknowledge Rome’s official religion. Polycarp died; his concern was his own liberation from the powers and the liberation of his brothers and sisters.⁷⁷

The message about the cross is the proclamation about the crucifixion and about the crucifixions foisted on society by those in power day after day. This proclamation exposes the power and testifies that God has put in place its end. The resurrection of the Crucified One has enabled him to become the power that conveys life. When those who believe remember, they consummate anew God’s act of resurrection. The dynamis in 1:18b is at one and the same time the power of God that did not let death have the Messiah and that also transforms those who put themselves into the hands of the crucified and risen Messiah. With this, a group (the believers) is not defining itself as those already saved in the context of God’s coming and God’s judgment. Far beyond that, they have been set free to new life even as they are the waiting ones, rising from the dead, who yearn for God’s salvation for the whole earth (see the basic information before 1:7, 8). Their transformed life is already now an experience of future salvation—that’s the reason for the formulation in the present tense (sōdzomenoi).⁷⁸ What is essential is to ponder the theological core of the Pauline talk about the »we« with reference to the congregation. The »we« are the people who comprise the congregation as it really exists and who in this reality allow the completeness of God’s future to become visible.

Again and again, Paul himself experienced on his own body the threat and the battle to overcome it (see 15:30–34; 4:9–13).